Calling eBay experts! How to minimise selling costs?

[Suzysuz]

I'm not new to eBay and have done quite a lot of buying and the odd selling when clearing out.

On my last clear out selling I've just had my eBay invoice which has come in much higher than expected and with addition charges to the final value % cut....

I blame myself as I've probably done something so thought was free but also haven't read any updated t&c's but wondered if any experts had good tips for keeping costs down?

Are we charged % of postage by Royal Mail now too?!

How to minimise selling costs? - Simples. Don't sell on eBay.

Only do free listings, then you only get charged the percentage of the sale.

They do have offers on occasionally as well

Are you putting costly add-ons to your listings e.g. scheduled listing times, large photographs, listings in more than one category. They can soon add up & make the fees a lot higher than you anticipate.

Thanks to the helpful responses

I did use a scheduled auction start, I don't usually use this so that's my error. However -when I was listing the items on my iPhone, eBay still showed a zero cost listing fee so is this cost actually hidden elsewhere? I know if I select a reserve price that shows as a listing cost but the scheduled start date option didn't show on any of my items... just tested it again and it definitely doesn't appear as a listing cost through iPhone eBay app...

The only way I know is to take advantage of free or fixed (eg £1) final value fee promos. I've hard several of these recently but I know they're not distributed to everyone. Always check the promos you've been offered by ebay.

% is on postage too annoyingly. It is mostly free to list and schedule a listing. Have a good look at your invoice details and see what you were charged for. The offers can be quite good if you can take advantage eg the max fee £1 recently was great. I saved a bit on that. Usually only on for a couple of days so you have to get listing quick or get drafts ready then finish and list if there is an offer.

Don’t make the starting price too low.

Don’t underestimate postage costs. Remember the postage includes packing as well, so add a bit extra for this.

Make sure the auctions finish in the evening. I’ve heard that Sunday is the busiest time on eBay, so a good time to,finish an auction.

I've never sold but am thinking of trying so really just place marking. Sorry.

Only sell on a £1 final fee offer. At least once a month for me but every 2 weeks at the moment.

Yep (illegally in my mind) ebay charge final value fees on the postage costs - to me they are making money out of something Royal mail do no them AND this is the first month we have all had an extra 20% added to selling fees because they have moved business practise from Luxembourg to London thus having to add VAT to invoices.

An extra 20%! How much are selling fees now?

at least 20% more than they used to be ......not sure what the idea is but they are pricing many off the site!

I was going to sell some stuff, but 20% is ridiculous. It was bad enough when they took a %of the postage costs (which I could never understand, and just made me put the P and P costs up).

Ah see I thought I'd heard something about them taking a % of postage costs now too.... flamin cheek! How do they justify that (obviously they don't even try) for people like most of us who just charge the cost of the actual sending?!
I do have one of those invite £1 final fee things now so will pop some bits on using that and without any add ons!!
Thanks for all the useful advice!

I have not seen anything different written anywhere other than 10% charge from ebay and 3.4% paypal with an added 20p. Just done some googling and seen some things about business sellers, so hoping that it wont affect me just selling house hold items - fingers crossed.

Look at your account and see if there are things on there that are not just final value fees.

When you list you need to check the last bit before you upload, where it will say 'List with displayed fees'. Sometimes they sneak in a fee for enhanced photos in some categories so you need to go back and untick the box.

Check that if you are using 're-list' that it is free, sometimes you get 2 free re-lists and sometimes they remove them, if you are using re-list rather than sell similar you might be getting charged for the re-list. Check the fees and your account for this.

You get 20 scheduled listings free per month. I get 100 free listings plus 20 free listings and 20 free schedules.